Willie Kirkland scored 17 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead the Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys to a 64-54 win over the Southern Arkansas Muleriders in Great American Conference action at Tucker Coliseum in Russellville.

“It seemed like Willie had a lot more than 10 rebounds,” ATU head coach Doug Karleskint said. “With Will Paul out, we needed him and Jared Williamson to step up and they did. And Jay Murphy played well. He played a tough game.”

Murphy added 11 points and Williamson of Russellville made three steals over the final 1:10 to help the Wonder Boys (9-6 overall, 6-3 GAC) bounce back from a Thursday night road loss at Arkansas-Monticello.

Arkansas Tech held Southern Arkansas to 31 percent (19-of-61) shooting from the field Saturday while defeating the Muleriders for a 12th consecutive meeting.

Williamson and Tyler Friedel finished with nine points apiece for the Wonder Boys. Paul Cooper and Charles Mells combined for 15 rebounds and six blocked shots.

After committing 25 turnovers in its loss at UAM on Thursday, ATU committed 11 first-half turnovers Saturday and only led 30-25 at the half despite shooting almost 56 percent from the floor and holding SAU to a 29-percent clip.

However, the Wonder Boys committed only four second-half turnovers and took advantage of some clutch defensive plays to seal the victory. Murphy acted as a second-half sparkplug, collecting nine of his 11 points in the second half, with seven coming from the free-throw line.

Tthe Wonder Boys claimed the lead for good at the 12:09 mark of the first half on a 3-pointer by Tyler Friedel, and pushed ahead by as many as ten (30-20) in the closing minutes of the opening half, before SAU closed the period on a 5-0 run to pull within five at the break.

Tech led by as many as 14 (43-29) as Charles Mells pushed the Wonder Boys ahead with a layup at the 13:59 mark, but SAU fought back, using a Ricky Allen layup to pull to within five at the 8:48 mark (47-42).

However, the Muleriders would get no closer as Tech extended its lead to ten (55-45) at the 55:45 mark on a Kirkland layup, and held SAU at arm’s length the remainder of the way.

Tech had a 32-24 advantage on points in the paint, but SAU used its 41-35 advantage on the rebounding glass, including a 19-9 mark on the offensive glass, to hold a 25-13 advantage in points in the paint. The Wonder Boys held a 45.5 to 31.1 percent advantage from the floor, while SAU shot just 16.7 percent on 5-of-30 shooting from 3-point range.

Arkansas Tech will travel to Searcy on Thursday to face Harding University. Tip-off for the men’s game is set for 7:30 p.m.